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Wireless Roadside Inspection Program (Phase II)

This is a cooperative project with FMCSA. The number of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) and the miles they travel grow each year while roadside safety inspection resources remain constant. In addition, the likelihood of a roadside safety inspection being conducted on a CMV is far less than being weighed. In 2003, there were 3 million truck inspections with a violation rate of 73 percent, and 177 million roadside trucks weigh with a violation rate of 0.29 percent. New technologies and enforcement strategies could dramatically increase the number of times a commercial vehicle and driver are examined, leading to better-targeted enforcement, creating a greater deterrence to operate unsafely, and reducing the number of truck and bus crashes. The main objective of this project is to improve highway safety through the dramatic increase of roadside safety inspections of heavy trucks and buses and their drivers enabled by wireless communications between vehicles and inspectors at highway speeds. FMCSA will test and evaluate the feasibility of a wireless roadside inspection system for CMVs and collect real-world data and lessons learned regarding specific technologies, information technology infrastructure requirements to upload electronic inspections to State and FMCSA safety databases, and technology and procedural standards. The expected benefits support FMCSA's safety mission to save lives and reduce injuries by preventing and minimizing the severity of truck and bus crashes by decreasing the number of unsafe CMVs and drivers on the highway; enabling more inspections with the same number of inspectors; reducing the probability of drivers bypassing the inspection station; and increasing the likelihood that fleets will attempt to meet the safety regulations and thereby improve efficiency through reduced stops for safe and legal vehicles and enforcement targeted at unsafe or illegal operators.

Supplemental Notes:

This project is funded by National Transportation Research Center Inc. NTRCI-UTC which is a separate entity from the University of Tennessee Regional UTC called the "STC"